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Felt Flowers from the Land of Oz

I was recently asked by Undercover Tourist, a great website for Disney World park tickets, apps and info, to create a craft to celebrate the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival. As luck would have it, the movie Oz, the Great and Powerful was opening at almost the same time and Disney announced there would be an Oz area in the festival. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but the beautiful flowers on the movie posters made my job easy.

I can’t show you the posters here because Disney has a lot more money than I do, but if you visit the Oz website you’ll see in many shots from the movie there is a lily-looking tropical flower. That’s how we’re going to bring home some movie magic.

Cut the flower shape from one piece of felt and five of the petal centers from the other. Cut along the red lines in the center of the flower, as indicated on the pattern. Cut four of the pipe cleaners in half.

Lay the flower face up and center one of the short pipe cleaners on a petal, about 1/4” from the top. Carefully add a petal center over the top, even with the top edge of the petal. Pin.

Stitch over the center and the pipe cleaner with embroidery floss, using the stitch of your choice. My embroidery floss is variegated, or ombre, which is why it looks like I used different colors.

Repeat on the other four petals. Push the ends of all five pipe cleaners through the hole in the center of the flower, bending slightly if necessary.

On the remaining short pipe cleaners, slide a bead to about 1 inch from the end. Holding the bead in place, bend the top of the pipe cleaner over it and twist it around underneath. Make three of these for the stamens.

Using the pipe cleaners, gather all five flower petals together. Push the bottom ends of the stamens into the center, making sure all eight pipe cleaners are even at the bottom. Wrap a couple of inches of the long pipe cleaner tightly around at the base of the flower. Leave the rest loose until the next step. I used a green one in this photo so you could see it better.

Slide the chopstick into the center of the stems from the bottom, pushing it as close to the flower as it will go. Finish wrapping the pipe cleaner around the stems and down the chopstick.

Starting just under the bottom of the flower, wrap the stem with floral tape, pulling slightly and overlapping as you spiral down.

Bend each petal outward with a slight curve and fan the stamens out a bit.

I made a few leaves to go with these, using the same method except a doubled-over pipe cleaner instead of the chopstick in the center.

These flowers were intended for the spring festival, but they make me feel like I can see a little peek of summer on the horizon.

I love Undercover Tourist! We have gotten lots of tickets from them. My hubby and I are going to miss the Flower and Garden Festival by one day. We will be traveling home from two back to back missions trips. I like your flowers!